Is new Covid wave causing flight cancellations?

As airlines struggle with staff shortage, strikes and lack of resilience at airports, the latest wave of Covid-19 infections is causing more flight cancellations.

Lufthansa has grounded more than 50 flights on Friday to and from its main base at Frankfurt, including a round-trip to London Heathrow.

“An increased corona sickness rate” is a particularly significant issue, as well as air-traffic control strikes and bad weather, that is putting “additional strain on the system”.

A spokesperson for the German airline told The Independent: “The nationwide increase in the number of corona infections is not sparing Lufthansa and its employees. In recent days, there have been short-notice sick calls from our crews.

“These industry-wide challenges have led to airlines across Europe having to take more flights out of the system, including Lufthansa, to be able to cover traffic peaks.

“The entire aviation industry, especially in Europe, is currently suffering from bottlenecks and staff shortages. This particularly affects airports, ground handling services, air traffic control and consequently airlines.

“Lufthansa has implemented numerous measures and is recruiting additional staff as far as possible to ensure the greatest possible stability of the flight schedule and thus offer its passengers the best possible planning reliability.”

The carrier has already removed more than 900 flights from its schedule in July, particularly on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Lufthansa says the flights chosen for cancellation  are mainly those where passengers can be offered an alternative by air or rail – the latter especially for domestic flights. Multiple cancellations from Frankfurt to Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Munich and Stuttgart have been made on Friday.

Aer Lingus has cancelled return flights on Friday linking its hub in Dublin with London Gatwick and Birmingham, as well as five other round trips, due to a spike in Covid-19 cases among staff.

Paul Charles, chief executive of The PC Agency, said: “Cancelled flight departures are up 78 per cent in the last week in Europe – clearly a sign not just of staff shortages but also due to last-minute sickness.

“Covid is forcing ground staff and flight crews to spend more time at home at such a critical period of the peak summer.

“Sadly, consumers can expect more last-minute cancellations caused by a spike in Covid cases. Governments have learned they can’t close down their economies again so the consequences of Covid are being felt in terms of cancellations.”